Financial services companies are among the most highly regulated industries in the world. They also suffer from a trust issue. Trust is a key ingredient in making a financial services business viable. Why would I ever buy insurance, banking services or invest my savings via a company that I didn’t trust?

After the sub-prime debt crisis in 2008 it became clear that the financial services industry would need to rebuild it’s image. Companies would need to zealously rebuild their brands to aspire to become “trusted advisors”. From an IT standpoint it is crystal clear that client and corporate data must be guarded and protected to prevent any loss as well as minimize the potential for damage to an organization’s reputation. How to manage the risk and yet stay innovative?

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation just released it’s annual letter. I have come to look forward to these letters because I find them incredibly inspiring. This year instead of an annual update they are re-baselining and taking a fifteen year view of the future. As I read this year’s letter I was simultaneously moved, inspired and awed by the scope their mission:

The lives of people in poor countries will improve faster in the next 15 years than at any other time in history. And their lives will improve more than anyone else’s.

Today President Barack Obama has come out in favor of net neutrality in very public way. He lays out in no uncertain terms that he believes no cable company or access provider should be able to put limits on access to the Internet. In addition, he’s suggesting that the FCC recognizes access to the Internet as a basic utility, and something that Americans have a basic right to. This means no blocking, no throttling, more transparency and no paid prioritization.

The White House announced on Monday, August 11th 2014, that it is formally launching a new U.S. Digital Service and that it has hired Mikey Dickerson to lead it. Mickey Dickerson is an engineer widely credited with playing a central role in salvaging HealthCare.gov. The idea behind the USDS is institutionalizing the approach that saved the US health care website.